Blade mCP S RC Helicopter With SAFE Technology

The mCP S is a little bigger than the nano CP S and has a lot more power and agility you need for 3D flight.

Blade releases the all new and improved mCP S ultra-micro helicopter

Blade has a new release for us indoor/outdoor pilots. The new Blade mCP S is not really a new concept but rather a revamped version of the older mCP X helicopter from a few years ago. The mCP S is a little bigger than the nano CP S and has a lot more power and agility you need for 3D flight. It also includes an all new flight controller along with all new updated electronics for the pilot that is looking to transition from a co-axial 4 channel to their first collective pitch helicopter. You can either purchase the BNF if you already have a compatible transmitter, or you can purchase the RTF for an all-in-one package. The mCP S has the popular SAFE technology included as well as the bail out mode and an optional brushless upgrade for even better performance.

Very interesting. I learned to fly on the original MCPX. I still had my original until a week ago and I gave it away to a friend who was interested in learning to fly helicopters. Is there any news on the cost of the optional brushless motor upgrade?

Very interesting. I learned to fly on the original MCPX. I still had my original until a week ago and I gave it away to a friend who was interested in learning to fly helicopters. Is there any news on the cost of the optional brushless motor upgrade?

Looking in the parts list on horizon's site in the optional accessories section it lists the brushless motor at 24.99 (pre order) and the esc separate for another $24.99 (pre order) So around $50 for the conversion, seems reasonable.

I bought one of these because I had an mCPX V2 that worked great mechanically (no complaints about the heli itself), but I never mastered flying CP properly. When they announced a SAFE version of the mCP platform, I became interested in it again.

My mCP S arrived yesterday, and I'm having some challenges with flying in the Stability (SAFE) Mode. The first challenge is drift - most of the time, it really wants to fly toward the tail and slightly to the left. I say "most of the time" because it's not always consistent like you'd expect with a problem such as a swashplate in need of adjustment. Sometimes it will want to drift forward instead.

The second challenge is that I really have to move the throttle stick high in order to get it to hover. With the suggested settings in the manual, I need to have the throttle stick up at 85% to 90% to get it to hover at a steady level. I'm still working on adjusting pitch and throttle curves (using a DX9) to see if I can improve that. The manual also suggested limiting the travel on the pitch channel to 75%, so I'm going to see what happens at 100% instead.

EDIT: Changing the travel on the pitch channel to 100% improved this considerably. Now it will hover at 65% of the stick.

I'm wondering what kind of out-of-the-box experiences others are having, and I also wonder if/when we'll see instructions for a "calibration flight" like all of the other SAFE-equipped helis out there.

--- UPDATE ---

I've run several more batteries through it, trying to analyze exactly what's going on with the drifting. I'm doing this indoors to eliminate wind as a factor.

For the first two minutes of the flight, the drifting really isn't that bad. I know it's not going to stand still in the air - it's still a CP heli, even with SAFE trying to center the controls. It's manageable, and very similar to steering a coax heli. The drifting often seems to go in the same direction as the last correction I gave it, so I really don't think it's an adjustment problem.

At almost exactly two minutes into the flight (it varies somewhat, but it's always very close to the two-minute mark), the pitch of the motor noise changes noticeably, and the heli starts vibrating quite a bit. I think all that vibration really throws the gyro system off track, because then the heli wants to drift forward so much that I have to pull back on the stick and hold it just to keep the heli from drifting away. Sometimes the tail hold breaks down as well, either making the tail wag or else allowing undesired yaw. I have to switch to high rates in order to keep the heli under control during this period.

So it's like I have two different helicopters for the first two minutes and the last two minutes of the four-minute flight.

Very disappointing. I guess I'll have to call HH about it and see which part(s) they think could be causing this.

Very disappointing. I guess I'll have to call HH about it and see which part(s) they think could be causing this.

I just picked one up. Only $140 at my local shop - with the recent offerings it's nice to see one come in at a fair price. I'm working on the review video today, I'll be sure to test for the issues you mention.

It sounds like you have two different issues. The drifting really sounds like your radio sticks aren't centering properly. These things have no real dead-band in the controls, and you might consider trying to program a mix to zero out the center, or use a little exponential to reduce the issue. This has been a problem with every Blade product I have, including the Zeyrok and other quads - they all totally lack any dead-band near center. My advice is "don't chase the drift, just fly" because I don't think there's much we can do about it.

I can't really explain the shaking, it really shouldn't do that when it's new. It's common for the linear servos to get a little wacked out after significant usage, but new one should be working fine. The increase in vibration is an issue, it really shouldn't be doing that either. My old (original) mCPX is a shake machine though, and it's possible the frame is doing it. I don't remember it ever being real smooth.

I was really hoping for more flight reports! I like to check those before I do my reviews. Anybody else having problems?

I'm becoming convinced that the problem I'm seeing is a power supply problem. The mCPX's had some issues with poor contact with the battery connector, or else the stock batteries just don't have a high enough C-rating to keep up.

Thanks for the input about the sticks, but I know my sticks are generating 0 values when centered. I also fly quads and planes with self-leveling capabilities, so I'm pretty picky about stick calibration. But I agree, it's really not enough drifting to worry about, at least during the first two minutes when everything is behaving.

I had "one of the good ones" with the mCPX V2 and had no issues with power or vibrations. I was hoping that whatever was causing that on the mCPX would have been rectified in the mCP S.

Guy over on HF is have power issues also. I think its the batterys but maybe not one guy soldered to the pins on the connector to make them tighter i guess he said it seemed to help some but it still doesnt look like it has the power i think it should.. I always loved my MCPX it taught me more about helis then any other heli ever did... I might get one of these if ppl work out the few issues.
The old MCPX would shake some w/o o rings being put on the swash links but i think someone said this heli comes out of the box with these already?
make sure it doesn't have a cracked main shaft is the other reason the old MCPX would shake

He was a pretty active member on here at one time, surprised he's not in this thread.

I'm going to try some 250mAh Hyperion batteries. It does come with the o-rings on the swash, but otherwise it's basically just a software upgrade, so I expect the same mechanical problems will probably be there. I've got some upgrade parts around here somewhere, might try those too.

Did you create the model in your transmitter from scratch or did you load the SPM file from Spektrum's Web site?

Reason I ask is that the SPM file from Spektrum comes set up with a lot of trim to begin with, whereas a new model from scratch would have 0 trim. So if you're not starting with 0 trim, go back and set it to 0 first before you drive yourself crazy trying to adjust it. Also, if you had non-zero trim on your transmitter when you did the bind with your transmitter, I'd try setting the trims to 0 and then binding again.

I'm very surprised that Spektrum's SPM file has all that trim set. Everything says that trim is a no-no for a heli or a plane with SAFE. (That's because the model can't tell the difference between stick input and trim, so all it can think is that you're holding the stick off-center intentionally.) Yet this heli seems to be OK with applying trim.

My model won't sit still in mid-air in Stability Mode ("N") without a little help. Granted, it's a lot better than it would be without SAFE, and it's very manageable. It's just not the total hands-off experience that the marketing would have you believe. I've had to put it aside for a couple of days, so I haven't had a chance to play with trimming it and quantify how much mine wants to drift without some stick input.